In the end
by purple-squares
Summary: Four years into the future, Naley, Brucas, Jeyton and Billz live in LA.  Life is different from what it is seen from the outside. Will they be able to stand the fights and drama?UPDATED. CHAPTER 4!
1. Chapter 1

"Bye Hales! Call you tomorrow!" said Brooke as she and Peyton left Nathan and Haley's house.

Haley turned around to see James asleep on the floor with all his toys surrounding him. Haley smiled at the innocence of her son. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes like his father. She walked over and picked him up. As she placed him in his bed, she began to sing to him, as she had done every night since he was born.

Nathan got home and heard Haley singing to James. He put his bag down by the kitchen table and walked towards his son's room. He leaned against the doorframe and watched Haley sing to him as his son smiled with content as he slept.

"You know, if you keep singing to him, he's gonna be a singer not a basketball player," said Nathan.

"Well would it be that bad if he was?" Haley smiled as she walked over to her husband who she hadn't seen since last night. Nathan had been training really hard lately, getting ready for the season to begin again, and hadn't really spent anytime with Haley or James.

"I dunno, it depends. Is he going to run away on a tour and kiss someone other than his wife?" Nathan snapped, glaring at Haley.

Haley glared back. She had had a bad day at work and with James crying non-stop from the time she picked him up at school. She could not handle another fight with Nathan because he was cranky and tired. As she walked out of James' room, she turned off the light, and said, "I don't want to fight with you again. I'm exhausted and I just want to go to bed."

"Why? How many suicides did you run today? Or how many games did you play? Oh wait, you didn't. I did." Nathan said sarcastically.

"No, you're right, I didn't do any suicides today and I didn't play any games. You know what I did? I went to work, I had a fight with Jake, picked up James, who, I'll have you know was crying non-stop all afternoon, and got looked down upon as the wife who has a screaming kid with no husband to be with her at her pregnancy check-up. So you know what? I'm the one the gets to be mad today." Haley yelled. "You're dinner is in the microwave. I'm going to bed." She sighed as she turned around and walked into their room and closed the door. Haley's eyes watered as she looked through her drawers to find some pyjamas to wear for bed.

Nathan didn't know what hit him. He had spent all day at the gym and hadn't bothered to check up on her or James. He had totally forgotten about Haley's 5-month pregnancy check up. Man had he really screwed up big this time. He heated up his dinner and ate it in silence as he figured it would be a good idea to let Haley cool down before he went in and apologised. He realised that this was their second fight of the week and it was only Wednesday night.

When he had finished his dinner he put his plate in the sink and turned off all the lights as he walked through the big house he and Haley lived in. When he got the top of the stairs he walked into James' room and crept over to his bed. He was sleeping so quietly and contently. It still amazed Nathan the amount that his son had grown since he was born. He was tall like him, so sure he would definitely have an advantage of being a basketball player. One thing for sure was that Nathan did not want to pressure James like Dan had pressured him. He wanted James to be able to choose what he wanted to do with his life. But sometimes it didn't come out like it.

He leaned over and pulled up the covers and tucked James in. He kissed his forehead and whispered, "Goodnight buddy, I love you."

By the time Nathan had reached his room, Haley was already fast asleep. He took his clothes leaving him in his boxers and climbed into bed slowly, as not to wake up Haley. She was laying on her back with her had protectively placed on her stomach. Nathan leaned across and put his hand on her stomach and whispered, "Goodnight baby, Daddy loves you." In her subconscious, Haley rolled over and cradled herself into Nathan's arms. This happened every night, even after a big fight. They would fall asleep on opposite sides of the bed, but wake up in each other's arms. That's how Nathan and Haley were. No matter what, they loved each other. They were going through a rough patch, but they both knew they would get through it.


	2. Chapter 2

Haley woke up once again to an empty bed. She hated fighting with Nathan and not having the lovey-dovey feeling of being in love. She sat up and pulled her legs off the bed, preparing herself to get up and get dressed for work. She looked at the clock. It was 10am. No! She had slept in! Jake was going to kill her! They already had a fight yesterday, she didn't need another one. She raced out of bed and into James' room.

"James! You need to get dressed because mummy is very late for work and…" she paused. She looked all around the room and found no James. If Nathan or she ever woke up after him, they would find him on the floor playing with all his toys. But not today. His toys were there, but no James. She panicked. "JAMES?!"

"Down here mummy!" James yelled from downstairs.

_Why would he be downstairs?_ Thought Haley as she raced downstairs. When she got to the bottom of the stairs she could smell bacon, eggs and toast. Just what she needed, but there was no time. She had to get James dressed and to school. She walked into the kitchen to find James sitting at the kitchen table drawing pictures with a small plate of some eggs and two small pieces of bacon.

"Mummy! Look what I drew for you!" James said as he smiled sweetly at her. It was a picture of Nathan, Haley and James. It didn't matter that Haley was drawn taller than James or Nathan, her baby drew that, and she loved it.

"Baby, that's lovely and mummy will put it on the fridge to always look at and cherish, but we need to get you to school now. We are very late because Mummy slept in."

"Hales," Nathan said as brought over a plate of bacon, eggs and a cup of coffee and placed it on the table.

"Ah! Nathan you scared me!" She whacked him on the arm. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the gym, and if you're home, why didn't you take James to school?" she kind of yelled, not meaning to. She was just confused and annoyed, and late.

Nathan smirked at his wife, "I called in sick today to spend some time with you and James. I realise that I haven't exactly been the father or the husband of the year lately" he said looking down. "Look Haley, I'm sorry about last night. I was just so cranky and tired, and coach worked us really hard yesterday. I didn't mean to come home and badger you. And I'm so sorry that I missed the appointment, I just got caught up with everything at training that I didn't even think about it. I'm so sorry." He paused.

"I called the clinic and found out that you didn't have the check up in the end," smiling at Haley, loving the fact that she couldn't do any of this pregnancy stuff without him, "and I rescheduled for another one." By now Haley had begun to smile and Nathan saw that he was over the hill with the fight. "Also, I called you in sick as well, so you don't have to worry about being late or having another fight with Jake, okay?"

Haley was amazed at Nathan. Usually he had left her an apology note by the bed the morning after a fight like last night's, but this one was different. He had realised that he was wrong and he fixed it pretty well she thought. She began to smell something burning.

"Babe, something is burning." She looked over and saw the toaster was spewing out smoke.

Nathan immediately ran over and pulled the plug out of the power point and pulled the two pieces of toast out of the toaster.

"Ahh!" screamed James.

"So… no to toast this morning I'm guessing?" He asked cheekily

"No!" James said.

Haley laughed as she wrapped her arms around Nathan's waist. "You are the worst cook ever!" she giggled, "but I love you."

Nathan smiled back at her, "I love you too," he said as he leaned in to kiss her. Then the realisation hit him. "Hey! I'm not the worst cook! I made bacon and eggs this morning, and okay the toast didn't go as planned, but…"

"Babe, chill out. I was joking. Your not the worst cook, you're just... bad..." Haley laughed.

Nathan scoffed.

"Look, all I'm saying is that you should leave the cooking to me. I mean, you did burn the toast all the way through the other side, so maybe you should stay out of the kitchen." She smiled as she turned around to try and clean up the mess from Nathan's cooking.

"But that would mean that I wouldn't be close to you," he whispered into her ear as he wrapped his arms around her and placed his hands on her protruding stomach. "and, well, we can't have that," he said as he kissed her neck.

"Well, maybe we can work something out," said Haley as she turned around in her husband's arms and kissed him.

"Eeew!" James screamed.

Nathan and Haley broke apart when they heard James scream. They laughed at the innocence of their son. "You know buddy, when you get older you're gonna like kissing girls." Nathan smirked.

"Eeew! No! Girls have cooties! I'm never gonna kiss a girl." James said

"But, what about..." Nathan said about to suggest a girl's name.

"Nathan, no! He is an innocent little boy who isn't kissing girls and doesn't want to, so I'd like to keep him this way for as long as possible. Don't corrupt his little mind." Haley said sternly.

"Yes baby," he laughed, "now come and eat your breakfast, well what's left of it," said Nathan laughing, as he stole a strip of bacon of her plate.

Nathan and Haley sat eating their breakfast while James was drawing something and humming a song. Nathan pulled the newspaper down just enough to let his eyes meet Haley's. They giggled as they listened to their son sing the lyrics to a song he had obviously just made up.

"Hey James, what are you drawing there now? Anything for me?" said Nathan.

"Yes," he said as he slipped off his chair, carrying his picture and climbed onto Nathan's lap. He was still wearing his superman pyjamas that they had bought him for his birthday last month. "This is for you. This is me, I'm wearing my superman pyjamas, see look!" he said as he pointed to the colourful squiggle of red and blue. "And this is mummy, she is holding a flower," Haley smiled.

"Where am I buddy?"

"You're not in the picture silly!" James giggled as he slid off Nathan's lap and ran back to his chair to draw something else.

Haley saw the sadness in Nathan's eyes. She knew that Nathan's long hours with the NBA was hard not only on her, but also on James. Nathan realised it too.

"Hey! How about we go to the park today?" Haley asked as she picked up James and kissed his cheek.

He giggled from his mummy's lips on his cheeks. "Okay! Yay!" He squealed as he squirmed out of Haley's arms.

"Go and get changed out of your pyjamas and daddy will be up in a minute to help you brush your teeth."

"But mummy, if I don't wear my superman clothes, how will superman know to come and get me when he needs help?" he asked innocently.

Nathan smiled and Haley giggled at James. "He will always find you, buddy. No matter where you are."

"Okay daddy," he grinned as he ran as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"No running in the house!" yelled Haley as she walked over and sat on Nathan's lap. "You okay?"

"I'm sorry I haven't been around much lately, and I know it's hard for you to be with James all day. I'm going to be there more, for you and for James." Nathan said sadly.

"It's okay, you're here now." She said as she kissed him.

"Daddy! I'm dressed!" James called from the foot of the stairs.

"Okay I'm coming!"

Haley giggled as she heard her son's footsteps run quickly back into the bathroom, ready for Nathan to help him. "You go help him brush his teeth and I'll clean up the kitchen."

Nathan smiled as he kissed Haley one more time before she got off his lap and he went upstairs.

"Daddy!! Hurry up!! My teeth are dirty!" James yelled.

Both Nathan and Haley laughed.


	3. Chapter 3

Brooke was sitting in her and Lucas' living room, in their large apartment that overlooked the 'Hollywood' sign, drawing up new designs for her new evening gown line for 'Clothes over Bros'. She had been furiously drawing for the past couple of hours and Lucas thought it would be the best time to continue on with his second novel.

His first novel, 'An Unkindness of Ravens', was an international best seller for 12 weeks and raked in over $1 million. Brooke on the other hand, had had amazing success with her fashion line, and had taken part in New York's Fashion Week every year for the past 4 years.

Lucas walked out of his study and into the living room, with a sheet of paper with red pen marks all over it. "Hey baby, can you read this and see if it makes sense?" he asked.

Brooke mumbled something, clearly deep in thought as she, what looked like to be scribbled on her page.

"Brooke!"

"Yeah babe?" she asked without looking up.

"Can you read this?" he asked again.

"Uh… not now, maybe later." She answered yet again without looking up.

"Look, I need to get this chapter done before tonight, so I would appreciate it if you looked at it." He said slightly annoyed, as he placed it under her nose.

Brooke tried to move her head away from the moving paper, but had no luck. "Ughh, okay!" she said as she grabbed the sheet of paper from Lucas' hand. She began to mumble the words on the page quickly under her breath, skipping parts, and every now and then saying, 'mmm' or 'uh-huh'. "Yup! Its good!" she said quickly, handing back the paper to Lucas before going back to her sketches.

Lucas knew how stressed Brooke was with the deadline for her designs. She had been working so hard all week and hadn't been able to get much sleep. She had caught up with Haley and Peyton yesterday to give herself a break, but he thought it had stressed her out even more. She paused and sighed for a long time. She threw her head back and tied her hair up in a high ponytail, and went back to work.

"Want some coffee?" he asked.

"Mmmm… yum." She answered with her mind elsewhere.

Lucas made two coffees and walked back into the living room and placed her favourite coffee mug in front of Brooke. She looked up moments later to see 'the world's greatest girlfriend' written on the mug with brightly painted letters. Brooke smiled and looked up to find Lucas nowhere to be seen. She had snapped at him and she realised that she had been doing that a lot lately. She got up and brought her coffee mug with her and walked to Lucas' study. She found him in his chair, looking frustrated, with his legs up on the desk, with a handful of papers messily arranged on his lap.

"I'm sorry," she said as she walked over to Lucas and waited for him to move his feet off his desk before she could sit on his lap. "I was a bitch before and I shouldn't have been, you didn't deserve it." She said looking down at her coffee mug.

"Mmmm, you're forgiven, as long as you do one thing for me," he said.

"What's that?" she asked clueless. Lucas pouted his lips, waiting expectantly, "Ohhh," she smiled, "I can do that." She giggled before she kissed him. Before they knew it, they were kissing passionately and they both had a ton of work to do. "Mmm, okay that's enough for now." Brooke said as she broke off the kiss, leaving Lucas stranded. "Now, give me my pink sparkly pen and your novel, and ill go through and circle things that don't make sense or are in the wrong place and I'll pretend I'm a harsh criticiser."

"You mean a critic?"

Brooke looked completely lost but figured it would be better to say something fast before she looked silly. "Uh-huh, that too." She kissed him quickly and bounced out of the room with his papers. God, he loved that girl. Even in the midst of deadlines and timelines, she was always able to put everything down for Lucas or anyone of her friends. That was one of the many things he admired about her.


	4. Chapter 4

The Scott family had spent the rest of the morning walking around the park, feeding the ducks at the pond and James repeatedly requesting to be pushed on the swing time and time again.

"Daddy! Can you push me again?" James cried out for only the millionth time that morning.

"Last time, okay? Daddy's tired."

"Why are you tired? Aren't daddies really strong like superman?" James asked looking up at Nathan.

How could he answer this one? "You know buddy, I am strong like superman, but even superman needs a rest every now and then." Nathan smiled as the thought he answered that pretty well.

"hmmm… but I bet you're stronger than superman, daddy." He smiled as he swung his legs on the swing. "Come on daddy! Swing me! Make me go high this time, not like mummy, she doesn't make me go high."

"Hey! I do swing you high!" Haley answered.

"No! Not like daddy!" James yelled back.

"Okay, okay James! I'll push you, higher than mummy does. Okay?" Nathan chuckled before he made sure James was holding on to the ropes tightly as he pulled back slightly higher than he had done previously. Even though the swing didn't go past Nathan's waist, James laughed and squealed to the top of his lungs so that everyone in the park could hear him. Haley gave her husband a stern look from the blanket that lay on the grass, and began to pack up the left over food from lunch.

"Come on James, I think it's time to go home." Haley said trying to enthuse her son off the swings.

"No! I want to stay here all day!"

Nathan knew James was going to be difficult, so he resorted to bribery, which Haley hated, but secretly knew it always worked. "Fine, Mummy and I are going to get ice cream, but you can stay here and swing if you want." He said as he began to turn and walk away.

"ICE CREAM?! REALLY MUMMY?" he checked with Haley before believing Nathan. Haley rarely let him have ice cream because it was bad for his teeth, but Nathan was able to keep a secret or two between him and James about a few sneaked ice creams over time.

She nodded, "I'm think I'm going to have strawberry. How bout you daddy?" She asked as she wrapped her arm around his waist.

"Hmm… chocolate chip I reckon. What about you buddy?" He asked as he turned around to find James struggling to get out of the swing. He was so stuck, but Nathan and Haley just watched their son grow more and more frustrated. He had inherited Nathan's forehead wrinkles when he got mad or frustrated. Haley giggled at her son until she realised he was so stuck that he burst into tears.

Nathan walked over and easily lifted James out of the swing and up into his arms. He immediately wrapped his arms tightly around his daddy's neck and sobbed. Nathan calmed him down by gently rubbing his back and kissing his head, as they walked towards the car, stopping by the ice cream cart on the way.

James was so tired from all the excitement at the park and getting upset, that he fell asleep in his car seat on the way home. He had fallen asleep with his half finished ice cream in his hand, which had by now melted, and the chocolate ice cream around his little mouth had dried. This was definitely a Kodak moment. When they got home Haley got the camera from their room and quickly snapped a shot before she took the ice cream out of James' hand and tried to wipe as much ice cream off his hands as possible.

Nathan had taken the picnic basket into the house and came back to get James out of his car seat and carry him into the house. Once he had carried him up to his room and put him into bed for a nap, he came back down stairs and found Haley in the living room, looking very upset.

"What's wrong?" he asked worried.

"Oh it's nothing, just stupid hormones." She said

Even though it probably was her hormones acting up, he still wanted to know what was upsetting his wife so much that her eyes were tearing up. "Haley, what is it?"

"It's nothing, I swear." She said before her eyes could not hold the amount of water in them and let the tears roll down her cheeks. She was a mess. "It's just that today has been so great and I realised that James isn't going to be a baby for much longer." She cried placing her hand on her swollen tummy. "I mean he's always going to be our baby, but we have another one coming in 4 months and he or she is going to be the baby, and then James will be a kid, not a baby, but I want him to be my baby forever." She spilled out quickly before completely breaking down in Nathan's arms.

Nathan smiled at his wife's worries. He could not be more in love with her than right this minute. "Oh, Haley" he said as he swept her up in his arms and placed her on his lap. She leaned against his chest and dug her face into his neck. Nathan knew it she would get over this quickly, but just needed a little helping hand. He wrapped his arms around his wife and whispered into her ear. "Honey, just because there is another baby on the way doesn't mean that he's not our baby anymore. He's always going to be our baby, even when he's finished school, starting college and is still living with us." This got a giggle out of Haley before she sniffed. "So there's no need for you too get worked up over this, okay?" he said reassuring her.

She nodded her head, still attached to his neck, and breathed in Nathan's scent, which always calmed her down. She sniffed again before she lifted her head. She had left a wet patch on Nathan's collar, which caused her to smile. "You're amazing, you know that? You always know the right thing to say." She said as she gazed into her husband's eyes. "I love you so much."

Nathan grinned upon hearing Haley's statement, "I love you more."

"That's not possible." She said kissing him.

"Oh, I think it is." He replied again before crashing his lips on to Haley's.


End file.
